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AFP : Update news as 14:40 GMT
- Subject: AFP : Update news as 14:40 GMT
- From: euburma@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 07:46:00
Armed group storms Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, demands talks
by Dan Eaton
BANGKOK, Oct 1 (AFP) - A group of 12 armed men stormed the Myanmar
embassy here Friday, taking nearly 40 people, including a number of
foreigners, hostage and demanding the country's military rulers open talks
with Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition.
In a dramatic escalation of Myanmar's decade-old political tensions,
police said the men, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, attacked
the embassy just before midday (0500 GMT). Shots rang out inside the
building but all the hostages were believed to be safe and negotiators were
talking to the group, which identified itself as the "Vigorous Burmese
Student Warriors", police said.
Dozens of police wearing flack jackets cordoned off Sathorn Road
surrounding the embassy in Bangkok's diplomatic sector, and sniffer dogs
were searching the area, an AFP reporter said. Snipers took up positions
on surrounding rooftops. Thai officials named 13 diplomats believed to be
inside the embassy but said Ambassador Hla Muang and six other envoys were
not there when it was stormed.
Several foreigners including a German national, three French and a
Canadian are thought to be amongst the hostages, Bangkok's police chief
said. Lieutenant General Wanarat Kotchrag said it was believed there were
also two Malaysians, two Singaporeans and one Japanese being held in the
compound. He said it was believed as many as 15-20 Thais were also
inside the building.
Talking by telephone with negotiators they demanded a 20-seat
helicopter by 08:00 a.m. Saturday (0100 GMT) to take them to the
Thai-Myanmar border along with a number of hostages, Wanarat said. Three
hostages were released during the afternoon, a Thai security guard, an
elderly gardener and a police guard. Witnesses said they looked shaken but
unhurt.
In a statement obtained by AFP the group called for the Myanmar junta
to begin talks with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and
release all political prisoners. Faxed from inside the embassy, the
statement said the hostages were
unharmed but the attackers were willing to "die in action."
"Eleven years after (the) nationwide democracy uprising Burma remains
under the oppressive military regime and the people are denied democracy
and human rights," the statement said, using the former name for
Myanmar. Hostages inside the embassy told friends by telephone they
feared for their safety.
"One man with a gun is below our flat and I am stuck inside," a friend
quoted the wife of a diplomat as saying.
"I am worried about my husband, I heard some shots before, but I only
know what I can see on television," she said.
The junta in Yangon is condemned internationally for alleged widespread
human rights abuses including the systematic rape and torture of ethnic
minorities, the use of slave labour and political imprisonment.
It is also vilified for ignoring the results of a 1990 election won in
a landslide by the NLD under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The hostage takers demanded to see an exiled student leader being held
at the interior ministry's detention centre. Two student leaders were
later brought from detention to talk through a loudspeaker to those inside
the compound but were quickly removed to safety after three more shots rang
out from the compound.
The attackers tore down the Myanmar flag, replacing it with the red and
gold fighting peacock banner of the pro-democracy movement. A spokesman
for Myanmar's military government said in a statement the ambassador was
working with Thai authorities to secure the release of the hostages.
A number of exiled Myanmar activist groups use Thailand as the base for
their efforts to topple the Yangon junta, calling for democracy and the
convening of the parliament elected in 1990. A spokesman for the
Thailand-based All Burma Students' Democratic Front, a group which
renounced armed struggle against the junta several years ago, denied
involvement in the embassy storming.
Aung San Suu Kyi has consistently refused to support calls for violent
protest, determined to avoid a repeat of the junta's bloody crushing of a
student uprising in 1988. The attack came during a brief stopover in
Thailand by US Secretary of Defense William Cohen, who voiced Washington's
support for Aung San Suu Kyi but opposed the use of violence.
"The United States has indicated that we have been supportive of her
efforts to bring about change in Burma (Myanmar)," he said. "But we are
not certainly in a position to try to dictate to Burma itself," he said.
Thin Myat Thu (Thida) Tel: + 47 22 414143
Web Editor Fax: + 47 22 413929
Democratic Voice of Burma http://www.communique.no/dvb